RPCI Scientists Publish Findings About Novel Anticancer Agent

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 20, 2012
Contact: Annie Deck-Miller, Senior Media Relations Manager
716-845-8593; annie.deck-miller@roswellpark.org

RPCI Scientists Publish Findings About Novel Anticancer Agent
Camptothecin analog FL118 shown to inhibit production of key cancer survival genes

BUFFALO — Some 500,000 people die of cancer in the United States each year, often because their cancers have become resistant to wp-contentroved therapies. Scientists at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) have made headway in the effort to overcome resistance to treatment, publishing findings about a novel cancer drug that has been shown to inhibit several genes associated with the ability of cancer cells to survive and reproduce.

A team led by Fengzhi Li, PhD, Associate Professor of Oncology in RPCI’s Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, assessed the antitumor effects of FL118, a camptothecin analog that is structurally similar to irinotecan and topotecan, in preclinical studies.

The ability of cancers to resist treatment with chemotherapy or radiation is rooted in the tendency of tumor cells to overproduce key genes that enable cancer cells to survive, such as survivin, Mcl-1, XIAP and cIAP2. Dr. Li and his colleagues found that FL118 inhibits expression of these genes in cancer cells and ultimately causes those tumor cells to die.

They also found that cancer cells die in the presence of FL118 even when the cells contained no p53, a key tumor-suppressing gene product. Because this protein is functionally eliminated in many cancers, it is important that cancer cells are sensitive to FL118 regardless of their p53 function. Preclinical studies showed a complete loss of detectable tumor mass in animal models following treatment with FL118, even for tumors that did not express “wild-type” p53 — a level of efficacy rarely seen with standard cancer therapies.

Importantly, FL118 was equally effective against tumor cells that are not normally considered to be resistant to therapy, and showed no wp-contentarent toxicity at these therapeutic levels.

“Our studies show that FL118 may become a superior option for effective control of both early and late-stage cancer, with or without metastasis,” said Dr. Li. “We still need to identify the exact biochemical targets as well as the pharmacokinetic and toxicological profile for FL118 before it goes into clinical studies, but we are encouraged by the implications of these compelling preclinical findings.”

The paper, “A Novel Small Molecule FL118 That Selectively Inhibits Survivin, Mcl-1, XIAP and cIAP2 in a p53-Independent Manner, Shows Superior Antitumor Activity,” published September 19 in PLOS ONE, is available at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0045571.

The mission of Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) is to understand, prevent and cure cancer. RPCI, founded in 1898, was one of the first cancer centers in the country to be named a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center and remains the only facility with this designation in Upstate New York. The Institute is a member of the prestigious National Comprehensive Cancer Network, an alliance of the nation’s leading cancer centers; maintains affiliate sites; and is a partner in national and international collaborative programs. For more information, visit RPCI’s website at http://www.roswellpark.org, call 1-877-ASK-RPCI (1-877-275-7724) or email askrpci@roswellpark.org.

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RIA Takes the Challenge on Reducing College Student Substance Use

For release: September 20, 2012Contact: Sara R. Saldi, saldi@buffalo.edu
University at Buffalo
716-645-4593

RIA Takes the Challenge on Reducing College Student Substance Use

BUFFALO, N.Y. — No longer considered an innocent rite of passage, binge drinking among college students contributes to wp-contentroximately 1,800 deaths and nearly 600,000 injuries each year.

And that’s just alcohol.

The University at Buffalo’s Research Institute on Addictions (RIA), an internationally recognized leader on the subject of substance use and abuse since 1970, is tackling this problem head on.

This fall RIA will offer a three-pronged wp-contentroach to educating students, health care and mental health workers, and college administrators about the dangers, new trends and treatments for reducing substance use and excessive drinking in college kids.

RIA Director, Kenneth Leonard, PhD “Despite strong efforts, excessive alcohol and substance use among college students have not substantially diminished in the past decade. While many colleges have educational programs or referral services, many college administrators are not aware of or have not implemented services that have been shown to be the most effective.

“Therefore, there is a pressing need for a more active and ongoing dialogue among researchers, practitioners and administrators regarding the current state of knowledge about college student drinking and substance use—a dialog that will also benefit parents and their children in college.”

A photo of Leonard is available at: http://www.buffalo.edu/news/13681.

First, the RIA is releasing the fifth in its series of expert summaries, “RIA Reaching Others: College Student Drinking,” a fact sheet describing the dangers of college student drinking, especially binge drinking—the scope of the problem, specific points for parents and the value of prevention.

The fact sheet is available at: http://www.ria.buffalo.edu/ExpertSummaries/ES5.html.

Second, as part of RIA’s Fall 2012 Seminar Series, Mark Wood,  PhD, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Rhode Island (URI) and an expert on substance use among college students, will speak on “Individual and Environmental Preventive Intervention to Reduce Collegiate Alcohol Abuse: A Full-Cycle Approach.”

His presentation will be at 10 a.m. Oct. 26 in Room 132 of the RIA building, 1021 Main St. on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. It will be free and open to the public.

For more information on the Wood presentation, visit: http://www.ria.buffalo.edu/events/index.html

Third, RIA is hosting a two-day conference, titled “The Challenge of Reducing College Student Substance Use: A Conversation in the Disciplines,” to take place Nov. 8 and 9 in the Ramada Hotel and Conference Center, 2402 North Forest Road near the Audubon Parkway in Getzville, adjacent to the UB North Campus.

The two-day event will feature alcohol and substance use experts from UB and from across the state.  It is sponsored by the Conversations in the Disciplines Program of the State University of New York.

The conference will bring together front-line staff from throughout the SUNY system who grwp-contentle with the real problems of college students’ alcohol and substance use and abuse, and the researchers who seek to develop and evaluate substance-use prevention and intervention strategies. It also will provide an opportunity for participants to present information about their programs and to discuss issues regarding the startup and operation of effective programs.

Even more importantly, however, the conference will explore the potential for developing a multi-campus network of researchers and practitioners across New York State to address excessive college student substance use.

“This will facilitate the development and evaluation of innovative and comprehensive wp-contentroaches to reducing substance use, and provide a communications network that will enhance the efforts of practitioners to offer the most effective strategies for their campuses,” Leonard said.

Information about the conference and how to register are available at http://www.ria.buffalo.edu/CID2012/index.htm

UB's Clinical & Translational Research Center Grand Opening

The University at Buffalo‘s (UB) Clinical and Translational Research Center (CTRC) has opened its doors to function as the premier center placing clinicians right next to clinical and translational researchers.
The University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences held the grand opening event at the UB-Kaleida Health joint facility located on Ellicott and Goodrich Streets on Thursday, September 20. The CTRC commenced the research collaborations to take place in the immediate future with a ceremony featuring physicians, UB representatives, and city and state officials. Speakers at the event included: Timothy F. Murphy, MD, director of UB’s CTRC and SUNY Distinguished Professor, UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences; Michael E. Cain, MD, UB vice president for health sciences and dean of the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences; Jeremy M. Jacobs, chairman, UB Council; Satish K. Tripathi, PhD, UB President; Sam Hoyt, Regional President, Empire State Development Corp.; Crystal D. Peoples-Stokes, NYS Assembly; Mark Grisanti, NYS Senate; and Byron W. Brown, mayor, City of Buffalo.

A walk-through of the CTRC and a keynote address by pioneering genomics scientist J. Craig Venter, who was conferred a SUNY honorary doctorate followed the ceremony.

A 170,000 sq. ft. biomedical research facility created to lessen the interval between discovery and cure, the CTRC will allow UB’s physician scientists to do their research upstairs in the CTRC and to see patients and work with clinicians downstairs in the Gates Vascular Institute (GVI).

The CTRC was designed by Cannon Design and constructed by with significant input from UB’s researchers so as to maximize this kind of collaboration in order to catalyze medical breakthroughs and innovative treatments. UB is recruiting more world-class researchers to work within the CTRC; the facility is part of UB’s medical school, which is relocating to downtown Buffalo in 2016 under the UB 2020 plan and with the support of Governor Cuomo’s NYSUNY 2020 legislation. A Biosciences Incubator within UB’s CTRC will assist UB researchers with the commercialization of new medical therapies and technologies.

“The opening of the CTRC is an important step in the relocation of UB’s medical school to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, under the UB 2020 plan and with the support of the NYSUNY 2020 legislation,” said UB President Satish K. Tripathi.

While Kaleida’s GVI occupies the first 4 floors of the facility, the CTRC is housed on floors 5 – 8 with the Jacobs Institute (which will open in October 2012) located on the 5th floor between the two. Read more about the CTRC here.

 

UB Awarded $1.6M Grant for Students to Study Cybersecurity

News Release

Cory Nealon

cmnealon@buffalo.edu

716-645-4614

Release Date: September 18, 2012

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The University at Buffalo has received a $1.6 million federal grant to teach students how to protect the United States from cyberattacks.

UB will use the grant, awarded by the National Science Foundation, to bring up to 16 students into its Center of Excellence in Information Systems, Assurance, Research and Education (CEISARE). It is one of wp-contentroximately 50 federally designated centers that supply the United States with graduates trained to protect the nation from computer-based attacks. For more information, visit: http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/caeiae.

The grant will cover the cost of student stipends ($25,000), in-state graduate tuition and fees ($12,000) and books, travel expenses and health insurance ($3,000) for two years. At roughly $80,000 per student, this equals $1.3 million. The remainder of the grant, roughly $345,000, will cover the cost of running the center for five years.

In exchange for the financial support, students must agree to work for the federal government for two years upon graduation. CEISARE Director Shambhu Upadhyaya said students can choose from numerous agencies including the National Security Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense and the FBI.

“When students graduate with a specialty in cybersecurity, they can basically go wherever they want,” said Upadhyaya, professor of computer science and engineering.

For a picture of Upadhyaya, visit: http://ubphoto.smugmug.com.

An interdisciplinary program, CEISARE includes a varied group of UB faculty. For example, the grant’s co-investigators are: Thomas Cusick, professor of mathematics; H. Raghav Rao, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in management science and systems department; and Mark Bartholomew, associate professor of law.

The diversity reflects the nuances of computer warfare, which Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said is the most serious economic and national security threat that the United States faces. She and other national security officials have warned that electric grids, transportation systems, banks and other industries reliant on computer systems are susceptible to cyberattacks.

Upadhyaya pointed to the 2009 hacking of sensitive information from the Pentagon’s $300 billion, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter project as an example.

The $1.6 million grant is the second multi-year award received by CEISARE. In 2008, it received $860,000 to educate 11 students, some of whom went on to work for the National Security Agency, the Federal Trade Commission and the Office of Inspector General.

Discovery of Essential Genes for Drug-Resistant Bacteria Reveals New, High-Value Drug Targets

Release Date: September 14, 2012Contact: Ellen Goldbaum, goldbaum@buffalo.edu
University at Buffalo
716-645-4605

Discovery of Essential Genes for Drug-Resistant Bacteria Reveals New, High-Value Drug Targets

By studying A. baumannii under “clinically relevant” conditions, the researchers have a more precise understanding of how the bacteria infects humans — and how best to fight it

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Biomedical scientists collaborating on translational research at two Buffalo institutions are reporting the discovery of a novel, and heretofore unrecognized, set of genes essential for the growth of potentially lethal, drug-resistant bacteria.  The study not only reveals multiple, new drug targets for this human infection, it also suggests that the typical methods of studying bacteria in rich laboratory media may not be the best way to identify much-needed antimicrobial drug targets.

The paper (http://mbio.asm.org/content/3/4/e00113-12) focuses on a Gram-negative bacteria called A. baumanni. It is published in the current issue of mBio, as an ‘editor’s choice’ paper. The findings may be relevant to other Gram-negative bacteria as well. (A graphic related to the research is at http://www.buffalo.edu/news/13673.)

A. baumannii is responsible for a growing number of hospital-acquired infections around the world. It can be fatal to patients with serious illnesses, the elderly and those who have had surgeries. Infections also have been seen in soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with battlefield injuries.

“Generally, healthy people don’t get infected,” explains lead author Timothy C. Umland, PhD, research scientist at Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute (HWI) and professor of structural biology in the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.  “But what’s challenging about A. baumannii is that it can survive in the hospital environment and is very hard to eradicate with common disinfectants, leading to healthcare-associated infections.”

Typically, the way that essential genes for microbial pathogens are found is by growing the bacteria under optimal conditions, says co-author Thomas A. Russo, MD, professor in the UB departments of medicine and microbiology and immunology. Genes found to be essential for growth are then entered into the Database of Essential Genes (DEG), which contains genes considered essential for the sustenance of each organism.

The researchers at HWI and UB decided to try to better understand what A. baumannii needs in order to grow when infecting patients.

“Laboratory conditions create a different type of environment from what hwp-contentens in patients,” Umland says, “where certain nutrients the bacteria need will be present in very low amounts and where the bacteria encounter immune and inflammatory responses. We were purposely trying to test for genes that are important for growth in these more realistic environments.”

The team performed a genetic screen designed to identify bacterial genes absolutely required for the growth and survival of A. baumannii in human ascites, a peritoneal fluid that accumulates under a variety of pathologic conditions.

“We found that nearly all of these 18 genes had not been identified as essential in the DEG because they weren’t necessary for growth in an ideal laboratory environment,” explains Russo. “This is a large set of genes that has been flying under the radar.”

He adds: “The biggest concern is that quite a few strains of A. baumannii are resistant to nearly all anti-microbial drugs and some strains are resistant to all of them. To make things worse, there are no new agents being tested for human use in the drug pipeline that are active against A. baumannii. This is a huge problem.”

Not only do the new genes suggest brand new, high-value drug targets for A. baumannii infections, but the genes that have been identified may be relevant to other Gram-negative infections.

“So far, our computational models show that these genes seem to be conserved across Gram-negative infections, meaning that they may lead to new drugs that would be effective for other drug-resistant infections as well,” says Umland.

The researchers who collaborated on the study are now pursuing antibacterial drug discovery efforts focused on the newly identified bacterial targets.

The research was funded by grants from the Telemedicine and Advance Technical Research Center of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, an interdisciplinary grant from UB and a VA Merit Review grant from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Other co-authors are: L. Wayne Schultz, PhD, of HWI and UB, and Ulrike MacDonald, Janet M. Beanan and Ruth Olson of the UB Department of Medicine, the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and UB’s Witebsky Center for Microbial Pathogenesis.

Sleep Medicine Centers of Western New York

The mission of Sleep Medicine Centers of Western New York is to provide excellence in sleep medicine care. Sleep Medicine Centers provides consultations to adults and children with sleep problems including:
*Obstructive Sleep Apnea   *Insomnia   *Restless Legs Syndrome   *Narcolepsy   *REM Behavior Sleep Disorders   *Parasomnias and more

Sleep Medicine Centers:

Offers a safe, comfortable sleeping environment to study your sleep.

Reads and interprets sleep studies, and provide them to you and your physicians in a timely manner.

Carries out research to further knowledge in sleep medicine.

Educates medical residents and fellows in the practice of sleep medicine.

Website: www.sleepmedicinecenters.com

OncoMed Pharmaceuticals

OncoMed Pharmaceuticals is a biotechnology company dedicated to improving cancer treatment by developing monoclonal antibodies and other agents that target the biologic pathways critical to tumor initiating cells, also known as “cancer stem cells”. OncoMed is leveraging our understanding of these tumor initiating cells to discover and develop novel therapeutics that could provide important alternatives for the treatment of cancer.
Website: www.oncomed.com

 

Immco Diagnostics

Immco Diagnostics develops and distributes autoimmune disease diagnostics and reagents to labs worldwide. Immco offers laboratory testing of autoimmune diseases for the US healthcare market. Its contract research organization supports clinical research trials for pharmaceutical and biotech clients.
Immco assay development led to the first immunofluorescence assay for diagnosing celiac disease and the first Western blot assay for autoimmune hearing loss. The new line of Immco enhanced ELISA assays provides standardized calibration systems, an industry first. Immco is continually expanding its product offering.

Immco’s principal mission is to provide the total solution in autoimmunity™.

Website: www.immcodiagnostics.com